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In 1974 we both lost our partners whom we loved very dearly. For two and a half years Marjorie became a recluse with her grief, and Sid became an alcoholic. We would not like to go through that traumatic experience again. Hence we decided we wanted to go together.
We have no children and no one to consider.
We have left instructions that we be cremated and that our ashes be mixed together. We feel that way, we will be together forever.
Please don’t feel sad, or grieve for us. But feel glad in your heart as we do.
Sidney and Marjorie Croft
The Crofts are the private face of an increasingly common sentiment among a minority of older people; that is that a good life should be able to be brought to an end with a good death, when and if a person so wishes. To suggest, as many in the medical profession have done, that the Crofts were ‘depressed’ is to trivialise and patronise them for their actions.
Another person who evoked this ‘tired of life’ phenomenon was retired French academic, Lisette Nigot. In 2002, Lisette Nigot also took her own life, consuming lethal drugs she had stockpiled over the years. Lisette’s reason for dying? She said she did not want to turn 80.